Mozart as Early Music: A Romantic Antidote

Author(s): Laurence Dreyfus

Source: Early Music, Vol. 20, No. 2, Performing Mozart's Music III (May, 1992), pp. 297-
298+300-303+305-306+308-309
Published by: Oxford University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3127886
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MOZART AND TRADITION

Laurence Dreyfus

Mozart as early music: a Romantic

out thatfared
How has the performance of Mozart's music 1991 has
inbeen
thespent celebrating Mozart, not
hands of the early music movement? Vanhal or Dittersdorf. this
In answering
question there is a danger of ignoring the
What differences
has been forgotten is that the Mozart of the late
20th centurythem
between many schools of playing and reducing is inescapably
all a Romantic Mozart. This is
the Mozart
into one 'historical tendency'.'1 By relying whose exalted status in the history of music
on generalities
of potentially sweeping vacuousness, was
I run
first the serious
appreciated by the Romantics, those literati and
philosophers
risk of misrepresentation. And yet there is perhapswhosome
preached the metaphysical value of
value in stepping back both from journalistic high art andcriticism
the special role that music, especially instru-
and from scholarly nitpicking in an attempt mental music, played in creating this transcendent
to formu-
late an admittedly extreme position that image. An contribute
will imagined return to an 18th-century undei-
to the debate about the overall directions of Mozart standing of Mozart-as in early music's project of resto-
interpretation today. ration-is therefore a return to a culture that essentially
Since I shall scarcely dwell at all on the successes of
misunderstood him. This was the age that by and large
early music in interpreting Mozart but will proceed heard Mozart's most profound works as too complex
immediately to voicing complaints about its inadequa-
and mercurial-'too many notes' in the reputed words
of Emperor Joseph. Our own high-culture view of
cies, let me cite at once what I take to be some significant
achievements. First, this approach has helped excavate
Mozart can have nothing to do with such philistinism.
Wethe
genres and styles so that musicians are more aware of rather subscribe to a view that first arose at the turn
'horizon of expectations' within and against which
of the 19th century which began to idealize and canonize
Mozart worked: dance styles, for example, now have greataworks of art. As E. T. A. Hoffmann put it in 181io,
lilt and grace when deprived of practices that turned
'only a deep Romantic spirit will completely recognize
them into Prussian marches. Second, the revival of 18th-
the Romantic depth of Mozart; only one equal to his
century instruments has introduced certain new musical
creative fantasy, inspired by the spirit of his works will,
timbres that convey a sense of intimacy encountered likeall
him, be permitted to express the highest values of
too infrequently in mainstream performances. Finally,
art.'4 Although it might seem that this Romantic Mozart
the accelerated tempos usually favoured by early music
was a fanciful invention of Hoffmann and his peers, it is
have done wonders for the weaker side of Mozart's just as easy to argue the reverse: that it was Mozart's
music that created its new Romantic audience, an audi-
musical output, so that the routine Andantes and Men-
uets from many early symphonies, for example, are ence
dis- that first understood what he and Beethoven were
patched with vigour and aplomb. up to. A performance style committed to a Romantic
Mozart is therefore one that-putting it somewhat too
On the whole, though, my sense is that the early music
movement has succeeded in performing Mozart only to
simplistically-subordinates the 18th-century idea of a
the extent that Mozart amounts to no more than a mun-
'jolly good' entertainment to the 19th-century realm of
musical
dane, if dextrous, representative of his age. In putting it metaphysics.
Lionel Trilling proposed an elegant formulation of
this way, I think you get my drift. The failure of the early
this new aesthetic in his Norton Lectures from 1970
music approach, as I see it, is precisely a failure to probe
deeply enough into what is so extraordinary about
entitled Sincerity and Authenticity: 'The artist-as he
comes to be called-ceases to be the craftsman or the
Mozart. This is not to say that early music performances
have not produced moments of exceptional powerperformer,
and dependent upon the approval of the audi-
beauty-which they certainly have-but that the overall
ence. His reference is to himself only, or to some tran-
scendent power which-or who-has decreed his
sense of the composer portrayed by these performances
ignores the enormous gulf that separates Mozart from
enterprise and alone is worthy to judge it.'" This was the
his run-of-the-mill contemporaries. I need hardly point
age, Trilling reminds us, that began by distinguishing

EARLY MUSIC MAY 1992 297

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mere pleasure and beauty from the 'triumph' of the sub-
lime (as in Schiller and Burke for example). While the
initial effect of this philosophic shift denigrated the
audience in favour of the artist-good taste ceding to
genius-the 'new devotion now given to art [was] prob-
ably more fervent than ever before in the history of cul-
ture. .. Now that art [was] no longer required to please,
it [was] expected to provide the spiritual substance of
life.'6
As regards Mozart, it is relatively easy to distinguish
between two receptions, one that greeted him in his life-
able ones. I would rather like to imagine that one c
arrive at an engaged interpretation of Mozart witho
on the one hand, paying blind obeisance to current-d
mainstream standards or, on the other, succumbing t
naive historicism that arrogantly pretends to 'speak t
language of the 18th century'. By a Romantic approac
therefore mean an affective stance toward perform
Mozart's works instead of, say, a historical method
ology-an attitude that evokes an aura of intima
understanding without prescribing a set of performa
conventions.

time and another that accompanied the shift in values But what kind of Mozartean performance practice,
shortly after his death. On the one hand it is Haydn's one may well ask, fulfils these demands? For I am not
sober high praise of Mozart in his statement to Leopold speaking here so much about traditional subjects of his-
in 1785: torical reconstruction-tempo, articulation, phrasing,
Before God and as an honest man I tell you that your son is the
ornamentation, pedalling or vibrato-as much as about
greatest composer known to me either in person or by name. more elusive yet entirely perceptible categories of
He has taste and, what is more, the most profound knowledge expression which have traditionally defined artistry in
of composition. the Romantic mode. I am thinking about musicians who
take time to let the music breathe, for whom music is
On the other hand are the dying words given to a strug-
made alternately to speak, dance and think; musicians
gling composer in Richard Wagner's short story Ein Ende
who risk agogic displacements to effect an air of fresh-
in Paris from 1841:
ness, who are impatient with any kind of routine, who
I believe in God, Mozart, and Beethoven and likewise their dis- constantly vary attacks, note lengths and dynamics so as
ciples and apostles. I believe in the Holy Spirit and the truth of to lend individuality to a musical utterance, and who,
the one, indivisible Art . . . I believe that he who once has
above all, subscribe to a pervasive anti-literalism that
bathed in the sublime delights of this high Art, is consecrated sees the written text not as a sealed vessel of intentions
to Her forever and never can deny Her.7
but as an invitation to enunciate, and in so doing ensure
Although it would be idle to imagine anyone today the communication of meanings that are the special
actually uttering this Wagnerian credo in polite province of music.
company, one must admit how much more appealing, In enumerating these values I am referring to prac-
though exaggerated, this Wagnerian formulation is tices realized essentially by individual musicians and
when compared to Haydn's dour restriction of Mozart's copied only imperfectly by larger ensembles. Yet it is a
talents to mere compositional dexterity and good taste.' curious fact that early music's Mozart is predominantly
Our cultural discomfort with late 18th-century aesthetic an orchestral affair, embracing by and large the sympho-
categories-with all due respect to Igor Stravinsky-
nies and piano concertos and placing far less emphasis
on sonatas and the string chamber music.9 This is of
therefore suggests that, when all is said and done, most
of us must admit to being confirmed, if sometimes course a curious situation concocted not only by enter-
lapsed, Romantics of an entirely traditional prising recording companies which have rushed into
denomination. marketing popular works from the mainstream reper-
Let me distance my argument from certain philistine
tory. For though one encounters in passing a sampling of
chamber music, the great quartets and quintets, for
views that I do not hold. First, having used the word
example, have played only a secondary role in early
'Romantic', I am not pledging allegiance to current-day
performances of Mozart by the musical mainstream, music's dissemination of Mozart for the simple reason
which more often than not devolve into the routine, that these performances and recordings have not really
hacking or saccharine. Second, I am not arguing against
said anything significantly new. This situation is, by the
way, precisely the reverse of the path by which early
the use of period instruments nor against the recovery of
historical performance practices: quite to the contrary, I music approached Baroque music: first came the solos
think these are excellent tools with which one can
and chamber music and only much later came the 'big
approach Mozart, though perhaps far from bands'.
indispens-

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 The problem is that early music's suppression of the

bach
Romantic tradition is doomed from the start to produce
inferior artistic results. For no matter how many liber-
tine declarations to the contrary, historical performers
are still in mortal dread of 'getting it wrong'-playing,
that is, in a way that cannot be historically verified. The
chronic mistake here is to imagine that we cannot really
know Mozart until we rid ourselves of our modern
prejudices, an attitude that leads to naysaying and reac-
Bach und: tive thinking. It is as if the early music Mozartean
die Tradition believes that mainstream musical training is the root of
all evil, and that the musical slate must be wiped clean."
The so-called fresh start then pieces together scattered
London Oboe Band
bits of performance practices from scratch, pretending
all the while that the sum total will amount to a coherent
Tanzensemble Folia
model of musical interpretation." But this incremental
Concerto Palatino, Bologna thinking, geared as it is toward producing a completeif
implicit 'how-to' manual, is in fact a repressive appara-
The Consort of Musicke tus. Instead of appeals to evocative metaphors and to
flashes of intuition, one observes a performance style in
Dresdner Kreuzchor
which legato, sostenuto, rubato, portamento and tempo
variation-signs pointing to Hoffmann's notion of the
Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra
Romantic sensibility-are considered 'later historical
developments' merely because they do not figure promi-
Niederlindischer Kammerchor
nently in 18th-century performance manuals pitched
Kuijken Ensemble chiefly at dilettantes."2 As a result, phrasing proceeds
piecemeal from a patchwork of detached gestures, a pro-
RIAS Kammerchor; nounced anxiety disrupts musical lines, and a primitive
notion of topic freezes musical signs into a string of rei-
European Community
fied units, effectively stalling the interpretive moment.
Baroque Orchestra
The historical enterprise of early music need of course
The Hilliard Ensemble not be like this: it can, as I have argued elsewhere,3 rather
be an invitation to a renewed form of expression, but
Deutsche Kamnmerphilharmonie only if musicians call a halt to puritanical ressentiment
and begin to entertain how artists from the Romantic
Tragicomedia und Timedance traditions made sense of Mozart. The charge is therefore
that we reclaim Mozart, not for the 18th century, but to
u.a.
ensure that his musical insights speak to us anew.
One important way to undertake this kind of rethink-

Berlin 3.-12. Juli 1992 ing is to discard the naive dichotomy that pits early
music performance against a monolithic mainstream
tradition.14 I can think of no better approach than to
listen with an open mind to recordings from the first
part of the 20th century, a musical 'Golden Age' (if ever
Mdrkischer
Mit Veranstaltu ngen: Musiksommer there was one) when the ideological dispute about his-
torical fidelity vs. subjective expression had not yet
reared its ugly head. In this connection, let me take a
Veranstaltungshinweise: Bach-Tage,
Bismarckstral3e 73, 1000 Berlin 12, 030 / 3 12 3677 recording from this period-a 1929 recording of
Mozart's String Quartet in D minor, K421, by the Flon-
zaley Quartet (sadly unavailable at present)l5-and com-

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Ex.i String Quartet, K421, i, bars 1-8

Allegro moderato
Atr

sotto voce
Vin IH

sotto voce

Vla I 1 /-7
sotto voce

sotto voce

5 Psotto voce
Ntr

:f
ilJ P
'

f ,

pare
arms, delicately applied vibrato, ubiquitous sliding por-
Berg
tamenti, and above all their fertile imaginations to imi-
ontate the human voice, especially
pe the great singers
contemporary with them. When the melody jumps up
appea
why the interval of a loth for the second time in bar 6, for
and the other two much less so. example, Adolfo Betti, the first violinist, delays slightly,
The remarkable qualities of the Flonzaleys-whom shifting
I upwards with a delicate and mournful slide that
shall dub 'Romantic' for purposes of this discussion-speaks directly from the heart.'7 The sense of unaffected
are evident in their reading of the very first bars of this
sincerity evoked by the such gestures is perhaps the most
great quartet: they are already anticipating the height-touching aspect of the Flonzaley performance and it is
all the more moving to realize how these gestures are
ened pathos of the opening theme in bars 5-8, so that the
sotto voce exposition in bars 1-4 begins with a hushed communicated as if self-evident, without fuss or fanfare.
urgency (ex.i). This 'breathy' pathos comes about by an Upon first hearing of these three recordings, one
inspired local 'rushing' of the off-beat quavers in the might think-given the gut strings and more sparing
second violin and viola, a kind of minute rhythmic dis- vibrato-that the early music performance has more in
common with the Romantic than with the Mainstream
placement that depicts, not just the subjective distress of
the melody, but the anguished disruption of the musical one. Certainly, many early music devotees will be sur-
microcosm. prised to hear how articulations practised early in our
Here is string playing attuned to nuance and gesture.
own century, for example, are far more variegated and
Rather than being hoodwinked by the demand to pro- interesting than those heard in mainstream perform-
duce an unfailingly even tone-a feature shared, curi-
ances today. On the other hand, it is striking how many
ously enough, by both the mainsteam and the early
values the early music performance shares with the
music schools-the Flonzaleys use their nimble bow
mainstream. For both the Salomon and Berg recordings

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Chateau de la Garenne-Lemot
CLISSON (France)
14th International Music Course
take pains to preserve the effect of a damnably 'Classical'
repose, a stylistic posture anxious to avoid Romantic
expression and depth. The Berg players achieve this by
avoiding rubato and slides, the Salomon by observing
the letter of 18th-century performance practices, but
both emit a stifling air when compared to the wit and
grace of the Flonzaleys. The liner notes on the Salomon
recording (written by Stephen Johnson) even go so far as
to assure listeners that, although the D minor quartet:

BAROQUE, may sound more troubled than any of its companions, [its]

CLASSICAL and expression still has an objective quality... a long way from the
'confessional' outpourings of some of the later romantics. The

ROMANTIC opening theme of the first movement is certainly highly

expressive, but the music's elegance and concision make any
attempt at personal dramatic interpretation sound faintly
20-26 July 1992 ludicrous.

This remarkable bit of propaganda, with its puritanical

Kenneth GILBERT, disapproval of personalized renditions of Mozart, makes
harpsichord master class sorry reading. But can one take seriously the implication
that the D minor Quartet is about 'elegance and con-
cision'? Although it is dangerous to impose the views of a
writer of liner notes on the recording artists, a reaction

27 July-2 August 1992 against 'confessional outpourings' and a decided pro-

hibition on 'personal dramatic interpretation' is sadly
evident in the recording as well. One wonders, though, if
Jaap SCHRODER, violin master class
the musicians approved such an explicit apologia for an
Jaap ter LINDEN, cello master class
anti-Romantic approach, this in one of Mozart's most
compellingly tragic works.
What prevents the Salomon and the Berg Quartets
from a more engaged dialogue with this profound work?
29 July-2 August 1992 For one thing they mostly play in strict time, another
sign of an anti-Romantic attitude: one can almost hear
QUATUOR MOSAIQUES, the careful counting of the quavers throughout much of
string quartet master class the first movement. In the opening four-bar phrases, for

Erich Hbbarth, violin-Andrea Bischof, example, there is no 'give' in the semiquaver passing
notes in bars 3 and 7-8; marching quavers dictate the
violin
character of the accompaniment, and, predictably,
Anita Mitterer, alto-Christophe Coin, cello expressive portamenti are avoided at all costs. When the
first violin in the Salomon begins the forte restatement
on the high d"' in bar 5, his instrument can only shriek
with the shrill insensibility so often encountered in the
further information: string playing of early music. It is a moment that could
stand as an emblem for Nietzschean ressentiment: avoid
Academie Internationale de Clisson too much sentiment or risk 'selling out' to Romantic
A.D.D.M. expression.8 Elsewhere, though, the Salomon appear
fixated on a consort-like ensemble sound to the exclu-
Hbtel du Departement-3, Quai Ceineray
sion of vivid characterization and fluid phrasing; as a
44041 NANTES CEDEX (FRANCE) result they seem unaffected by the emotive paths tra-
Phone: 40.41.11.27* Fax: 40.47.15.46 versed by the music.
The Berg players also concentrate on their individ-

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Ex.2 String Quartet, K421, i, bars 25-32

25

.) p , -I J .I J I

28

3 3 3 3

cresc.

cresc. p ... . 'i' W2 W2 simile

fp sf

ually
weight on every quaver and bea
is closely allied with the
often
dreaded portato ('wah-wah') effect that mis the downfall
the of possib
any flowing legato. The problem with these frequently
piece. (An
encountered mainstream mannerisms is that they can
confess?
only pose as signs of emotional depth rather than being
mainstrea
superseded by a musicality that actually experiences it.
moreover
The resulting expression, exquisitely crafted as it is,
movemen
remains decidedly second-hand.
developm
The expressive depth of the Flonzaleys, by contrast,
lies with the changing
been spea moods that they portray so
as well from the baleful influence of metrical subdiv-insightfully. Consider the second theme group (bars
ision-happily absent from the Flonzaley performance. 15ff.) in F major (ex.2). Here the slight rubato in the first
This compulsive counting places an equally overbearingviolin's semiquavers (bars 15-18) evoke a delicacy and

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Ex.3 String Quartet, K421, bars 94-1o2
94
..4
Pmf
p3
cresc,
crs.
100 __
f f
wistfulness, while the ornamented triplet figures and the
paired duplets in the second violin (bars 19-22) suggest
playful high jinks. The closing material culminates with
what the players seem to hear as a brief buffa patter-song
sung, perhaps, by elfin-like spirits.
When the recapitulated transformation of this very
same material occurs in the minor (ex.3) the Flonzaleys
effect a tone of unfathomable adversity. Betti refuses,
tellingly, to overplay the moment; instead he introverts
it. The gesture is personal, intimate, yet desperate (ver-
zweifelt) in the manner of the Pamina's 'Ach, ich fiihl's'.
His airy legato phrase, sweet yet unsentimental, slides
dolefully to the harmonic on a", creating the effect of a
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_ _
3 3 aJ - 3 3 3
p
_I r
i .
P
miniature, heaven-bent preghiera. The foursome, in
turn, react to this inevitable turn for the worse. High
jinks revert to frenzied struggle. The players rush pre-
cipitously toward the close, taking time only momen-
tarily for the somber, concluding reflections by the cello.
While this is surely not the only way to play this move-
ment, the vividness of the Flonzaley performance seems
to presage a warning: banish Mozart to a remote stylistic
realm, and his works will speak only from a distance.
It might seem from this discussion that I am advocat-
ing an intentionally anachronistic performance practice
for Mozart, thereby mounting an attack both on recon-
structive scholarship and on performance informed by a
EARLY MUSIC MAY 1992 305
historical consciousness. This is not the case. What I am recital, behind all the incredible fascination and the music's
mystery and awe; finally she was startled and shaken by how he
suggesting instead is threefold: (i) that research on 18th-
hadin
century performance practice has severe limits casually talked about himself in the same vein. She had a
conviction, an absolute conviction, that this man would rap-
addressing the most profound issues of musical inter-
idly and inexorably be consumed in his own flame, that his
pretation-far less is known about alleged stylistic
presence on earth was fleeting and ephemeral because this
anachronisms than it often appears; (ii) that the appeal
world was, in truth, not capable of enduring the overwhelming
to an 18th-century Mozart may inhibit an intimateriches
rap- which he would lavish upon it. This and many other
prochementwith his music; and (iii) that we look beyond
things weighed on her heart after she had gone to bed that
traditional musicological sources for nurture and inspi-
evening, while the echoes of Don Giovanni continued to ring
ration-good ideas are welcome regardless of their
confusedly in her head. Only towards daybreak, exhausted, she
source. An inspired rethinking of interpretive funda-
fell asleep.9
mentals, not a rote imitation of any particular tradition
It is a commonplace of Romantic aesthetics that music
is the kind of agenda I am contemplating. This is why I merely imitate the world but rather penetrates
does not
stress the implications of the Romantic idealization of
to the deepest cores of meaning without, as Wacken-
Mozart-still, in my view, the fundamental basis forroder
his put it, 'any painstaking detour through words:
late 20th-century reception-instead of idealizing feeling, fantasy, and the power of thought are one"20
Romantic performance practice per se. Rather than Musical
par- performance, according to this nearly inescap-
ticipating in the musicological debate about the prog-
able model, amounts therefore to a cipher of meaning: it
nosis for-or the impossibility of-a 'historical paradoxically portrays musical sense while embodying it
performance' of Mozart, my aim is to suggest ways toat the very same time. M6rike's dream-like account of
enhance and enliven these performances. Eugenie's experience aims not at containing the mean-
I shall conclude these polemical ruminations on inga embodied in Mozart's music but rather tries to evoke
hopeful note by invoking one of the 19th-century texts
its haunting power; only sleep, long delayed, furnishes
that captures so brilliantly the aura of the Romanticrespite and escape.
Mozart. Eduard Mdrike's Mozart on the Journey to Why do I cite such a remarkable passage? Because I
Prague (1853) recounts the composer on the way to
think the poignant experience it conveys is not limited
Prague, where he is to produce Don Giovanni. Taking ato some distant period of cultural history but rings true
break from his journey in an elegant garden in the Mor-as an authentically Mozartean moment, a moment that
avian countryside, Mozart unthinkingly plucks anmusicians of whatever persuasion can revive as they
orange from a tree and is immediately confronted with make Mozart intelligible to us today. There is clearly no
his theft by the gardener of the local Count von Schinz-one demonstrable path that will lead to this kind of
burg. The Count, once Mozart's identity is made known,
genuine encounter, but I suspect that being attuned to
invites him and Constanze to join an engagement partyits existence will enhance the incalculable value of play-
that will shortly be under way at the castle. Mozart per-ing and hearing Mozart this way.
forms an excerpt from a piano concerto for the
assembled guests as well as accompanies the Count's
Laurence Dreyfus, author of Bach's Continuo Group:
niece, Eugenie, who sings Susanna's aria from the gardenPlayers and Practices in his Vocal Works, is Associate Pro-
scene in Figaro, in which, Mbrike writes, 'the stream offessor of Music at Stanford University and performs
sweet passion breathes like the spiced air of a summeractively as a viola da gambist and cellist.
night'. The young singer is herself 'transfigured' by 'the
uniqueness of the moment' and is even more overcomeDiscussion
when, late in the evening, Mozart plays through the MALCOLM BILSON If I had time, I would try and refute
apocalyptic penultimate scene from Don Giovanni.almost everything you had to say, but the thing that has
to be refuted at once is the accusation that those of us
Transfixed by this captivating personality and his artistic
who play on period instruments think that great old
vision, Eugenie reflects on her experience at the very end
of the story after the Mozarts have departed. players should be dismissed. Who has said that? I have
She feels, Morike writes: worked with John Eliot Gardiner and Christopher Hog-
inwardly seized by a slight foreboding for the man whosewood and I know Steven Lubin and Melvyn Tan and
many others; I cannot think of one of them who would
charming presence gave her such delight; this foreboding per-
sisted at the back of her mind during the whole of Mozart'ssay you should throw out Dinu Lipatti and Edwin

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Fischer. This music is huge; it is big enough to take what [FROM THE FLOOR] Well, every generation asks different
we do to it and what Rachmaninov did to it. questions, and one reason for the extreme popularity of
LAURENCE DREYFUS But even if you personally admireMozart just now is maybe that he provides answers to
players from earlier in the 20th century, Mr Bilson, Ithe particular questions our generation asks. We look for
think it's fair to say that the musical insights of suchwhat we want, and find what we get.
players have been essentially ignored in the ideologicalLAURENCE DREYFUS What I'm proposing is a kind of
pronouncement of early music performance as well as in
paradigm shift that will reawaken a traditional aesthetic
its practice and pedagogy. My point is that the his- need and then help us fill it.
toricism of early music has no obvious way to incor-
I wish to thank Karol Berger, Lewis Lockwood and Richard Tarus-
porate the audible refinements of great musicians intokin for their helpful criticisms of this essay.
its imagined reconstruction of the 18th century. 'The alternative would be to hear Mozart's deepest creations as a
NEAL ZASLAW It's easy to parody the excesses of bothbrilliantly executed game. Yet even a demystifying, ostensibly anti-
Romantic play like Peter Shaffer's Amadeus (1981) or an ironically
sides and I would prefer that we only deal with those on detached biography like Wolfgang Hildesheimer's Mozart (1977)
each side who make serious points about music. But I merely serves to reinforce the common perception that Mozart's great-
feel quite certain that I am not the only one who stronglyest musical works are removed from his bawdy and scatological per-
sona, that they are, in fact, manifestations of another realm, that of
prefers Haydn's characterization of Mozart's gifts as pure spirituality made accessible only by an old friend, Romanticism.
'taste and the most profound knowledge of compo- 3This is not to say that Mozart did not have admirers-even passionate
ones-in his own day, but that their regard lacked the ecstatic enthusiasm
sition' to Wagner's romantic fantasizing.
(Schwdrmerei) of the first generation of Romantics. For although new
ROBERT LEVIN Taste for a human being is a completelynotions of both the sublime and the centrality of instrumental music were
randomly assembled group of prejudices. Mozart's tastebeing formulated nearly under Mozart's nose, the actual critical reception

was randomly assembled from all those influences heof the composer's music during his lifetime never seems to have
embraced the newly emerging aesthetic. As late as 1796 the influential
heard around him, and those prejudices of his turnedcritic Johann Friedrich Reichardt bemoans the great loss of Mozart at
into a style which we now think was one of the mostsuch a young age, and yet views his music as lacking in propriety and
remarkable happenings in Western culture. I think Larrynatural feeling: 'Whoever wants to warm his heart on Mozart's works;
whoever wants to seek a connective sequence of feelings [Empfindungen],
Dreyfus is right, because at an early stage in this processan organically emerging passion; in short, whoever awaits in Mozart ten-
there were people who did say that a performance on oldderness [and] sentiment [must realize] that Mozart is not his man.' All the
instruments was better than one on modern instru- limitless melodic invention and remarkable orchestration-everything
that we prize in Mozart-Reichardt sees as 'betraying nothing other than
ments, period. These were not performances at all,a spirited,
but troubled genius, who hurries along and tires himself out danc-
demonstrations of what certain bow strokes and timbres ing, and because of this finally collapses when his glutted imagination has
and instruments could do. Now we have to formulate a wandered about long enough . . . in the endless realm of possibilities'.
Johann Friedrich Reichardt, 'Ober das grosse Mozartsche Theaterkonzert
different position, and say that the deepest issue is, im
of Berlinischen Opernhause', Deutschland (1796), ii, pp.363-7; cited in
course, whether our art is expressive and communi-H.-G. Ottenberg, ed., Der Critische Musicus an der Spree: Berliner Mus-
ikschrifttum von 1748 bis 1799, Fine Dokumentation (Leipzig, 1984),
cative. I believe that there are propitious ways in which
pp.341-2.
to convey very specific rhetorical devices in Mozart's 4E. T. A. Hoffmann, Schriften zur Musik (Berlin, 1988), p.59
music on period instruments. I would say that it should5L. Trilling, Sincerity and Authenticity (Cambridge, Mass., 1972),
P.97
be possible on a modern instrument to realize those
6Trilling, Sincerity and Authenticity, p.98
things too, but it may be significantly more difficult in 7Richard Wagner, Stories and Essays, trans. Osborne (London, 1973),
certain ways! p.11; German in Wagner, Gesammelte Schriften und Dichtungen (Leip-
[FROM THE FLOOR] We cannot find a single tradition zig, of 1888), i, pp.114-35. While I do not mean to suggest that all Roman-
tic attitudes, particularly those held by musicians and composers in the
Homer that exhausts all the possibilities of those texts,
19th century, were uniform in their idealization of Mozart, it seems to
me that one can demonstrate a more or less continuous tradition dat-
nor a single production of a Shakespeare play. Surely this
ing from the beginning of the 19th century that placed the composer
applies to music, and suggests that all performances are
definitively within the pantheon of musical giants whose metaphysical
valid views of the work.
significance was never in jeopardy.
LAURENCE DREYFUS But if all performances were valid 'Trilling, in a lengthy footnote (p.98) goes so far as to assert that 'the

views of the work, then music criticism of any kind isfaculty of "taste" has re-established itself at the centre of the experience
of art', which no longer can 'be said to make exigent demands on the
superfluous. In fact, I am not arguing for a uniform audience'. Though Trilling is right to lament the loss of these 'good old
point of view nor suggesting that early music perform-days', there are surely many for whom great music still makes 'exigent
demands'.
ances of Mozart are invalid. Instead, I want us to re-
9My guess is that, given the little time devoted to rehearsals in
examine the assumptions under which the performanceMozart's day, we would probably be deeply dissatisfied to hear orches-
of Mozart operates and rethink them if we like. tral performances from the 18th century; we would also be justified in

308 EARLY MUSIC MAY 1992

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our dissatisfaction, especially today when the standards for audi-
tioning orchestral players nearly approach those of soloists and when Cultura Mbsica
the parley of conductors routinely appeals to the values and practices
of chamber music.
'"A commonly encountered sign of this reactive thinking is the ped-
agogical attitude that presupposes an adversarial relationship between
period style, asserted as historically ascertainable, and mainstream LA SEU D'URGELL
style, pitied as hopelessly anachronistic.
"Examples of such clean slates are notated accents and dynamic August 22 - 30, 1992
markings that are exaggerated in an aggressive manner irrespective of
character and context, sforzando and fp markings that are mercilessly XII EARLY MUSIC COURSE
attacked without preparation, and sets of adjacent duplet slurs that are
uniformly clipped and separated regardless of the overall shape of the IN CATALONIA
phrase.
'2Neither is there evidence that good musicians played with invar- AND ANDORRA
iable tempos, observed articulation marks uniformly, avoided the use
of the pedal, or resisted the temptation to slide for purposes of Director: Romba Escalas
expression.
13L. Dreyfus, 'Early Music Defended against its Devotees', MQ, lxix
(1983), pp.297-322, esp. pp.300oo-3o4, 320-22
14See Richard Taruskin's illuminating contribution in this issue on
the question of changing traditions and their transmission. I might
add that when early music is thought of as an evolving cultural practice
in its own right-rather than merely a progressive program of his-
torical reconstruction-it makes more sense to dip more freely into
neighbouring traditions for inspiration and nurture.
'15There was also an earlier 'acoustic' Flonzaley issue (recorded in
1920) of the final movement of K421 on Victor 74652 (Matrix
B-23551-4). This equally fascinating performance was with violist Louis
Bailley (1882-1974) rather than with Nicolas Moldavan (1891-1974),
who plays in the 1929 release. The Flonzaleys also recorded movements
from K387 (1922), K499 (1923), K575 (1918 and 1927). See J. M. Samuel, 'A Jordi Albareda: Vocal technique
Complete Discography to the Recordings by the Flonzaley Quartet', Montserrat Figueras: Vocal interpretation
ARSCJournal, xix (1987), pp.28-62. (I am grateful to Richard Koprow- Jean Pierre Canihac: Cornet
ski of the Stanford Archive for Recorded Sound for locating this dis- Roma' Escalas: Recorder
cography for me). The other members of the quartet, founded in 1902, Daniel Lassalle: Sackbut
included Adolfo Betti (1873-1950), Alfred Pochon (1878-1959) and Alfredo Bernardini: Shawm and baroque oboe
Iwan d'Archambeau (1879-1955). They last appeared together in public Josep Borris: Curtal and baroque bassoon
in March 1929. See also another discussion of a Flonzaley recording in Hopkinson Smith: Lute and vihuela (24, 25 and 26)
J. W. Finson, 'Performing Practice in the late Nineteenth Century, with Rolf Lislevand: Lute and vihuela (27, 28 and 29)
Special Reference to the Music of Brahms', MQ, lxx (1984), PP.457-75, Jordi Savall: Viola da gamba
esp. pp.468-73. Guido Morini: Harpsichord
6Mozart, D minor String Quartet, Flonzaley Quartet, RCA Victor VOCAL AND INSTRUMENTAL ENSEMBLE
7607-A/76o8B (Camden, N.J., 1929); Mozart, Die io gropen Streich- Jordi Savall, conductor
quartette, Alban Berg Quartett Wien, Telefunken 6.35485 (Hamburg,
Those who are interested in taking part in the vocal ensemble,
1977 [1979]); Mozart String Quartets: D minor, K421-C Major, K465, should send a curriculum and audio material
The Salomon String Quartet, Hyperion A 66170 stereo LP (London,
(Deadline: 10th July 1992)
1985)
Concerts will be held in Andorra
7The early 19th-century theorist J.-J. de Momigny (1762-1838) may
have overextended his hermeneutic licence when, as an example of an and La Seu d'Urgell during the course
analysis of expression, he supplied a poetic text to the first movement Registration deadline: 20th July 1992
of K421 with verse representing a scene between Dido and Aeneas, but
Information and registration:
he certainly understood the elevated tragic tone in which the musical
Area de Misica
discourse of the first movement is conducted. The analysis is found in
his Cours complet d'harmonie et de composition (Paris, 1803-6), iii, Departament de Cultura
Rambla de Santa Mbnica, 8 - 3r.
pp.lo9ff., and is cited in I. Bent, 'Analysis', New Grove, pp.348-9.
08002 BARCELONA Tel. (34-3) 318 50 04
18'The gut strings cannot be at fault, as one is often assured, since the
Flonzaleys play on them as well. Indeed, early music players could
learn volumes from the Flonzaley's refined use of gut strings, which
invariably sound sweet and human, and never harsh or strident.
Generalitat de Catalunya
9Eduard Marike, Mozart's Journey to Prague, trans. L. von Loewen-
Departament de Cultura
stein-Wertheim (London, 1957), pp.4o, 91-92; original German text in
Andorra
Gesammelte Erzahlungen (Leipzig, 6/1902)
?Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder, Werke und Briefe (Heidelberg, Govern
1967), cited in L. Treitler, Music and the Historical Imagination (Cam- Conselleria d'Educaci6 i Cultura
bridge, Mass., 1989), p.184

EARLY MUSIC MAY 1992 309

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